PNG News Updates - PNG government to oust Michael Somare, MP claims

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PNG government to oust Michael Somare, MP claims

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The government of Papua New Guinea is recalling parliament for a special sitting next Tuesday to officially end the political career of ailing former prime minister Michael Somare, an opposition MP has claimed.

East Sepik provincial governor and national MP Peter Wararu Waranaka also said he has sent a submission to the Ombudsman Commission asking it to intervene and stop the parliamentary recall.

The government of Peter O'Neill announced on Sunday it would recall parliament on September 6 – two weeks ahead of schedule – to oversee passage of bills that were delayed under the governments of Somare and his appointee for acting prime minister, Sam Abal.

But Waranaka says the move is a ploy to officially dump Somare from the East Sepik parliamentary seat he has held for four decades.

"(The government will) focus on creating a vacancy by absenteeism of the Grand Chief (Somare) from parliamentary meetings," Waranaka said in an emailed statement today.

"To force a recall of parliament is an attempt to firstly assume and secondly reinforce a claim to legitimacy which directly impinges on the primary question before the Supreme Court. It is therefore contemptuous."

Warananka said he had filed a submission to the Ombudsman Commission asking it to intervene. Somare's son and former public enterprises minister Arthur Somare was also a signatory to the letter. A spokesperson for O'Neill could not be reached on Tuesday.

Under PNG law, an MP can be dismissed from parliament if he or she misses three consecutive sittings without leave. Next Tuesday's expected sitting will mark Somare's third absence from the new parliament. The 75-year-old has been in Singapore since mid-April recovering from three heart operations.

Affectionately called "the old man" by the people of PNG, he has made one public statement in that time – appearing on national radio in late April to deny he was ill.

The East Sepik provincial government, which presides over Somare's home turf, is locked in a Supreme Court battle against the O'Neill government. It claims parliament's vote on August 2 to declare the prime ministership vacant – and the subsequent elevation of O'Neill to the top job – was illegal.

The Supreme Court of PNG is expected to decide tomorrow afternoon on a mid-September date to hear the constitutional challenge.